Panel: Apple uses firms outside US to avoid taxes

McCain said that while Apple claims to be the biggest U.S. corporate taxpayer, it is also “among America’s largest tax avoiders.”

He called Apple’s strategy “an egregious and really outrageous scheme that Apple has been able to orchestrate to avoid paying taxes.”

Levin and McCain are proposing legislation to close loopholes in the tax code.

The subcommittee report also noted that Apple has been setting aside billions for tax bills it may never pay. As previously reported by The Associated Press, the overlooked asset that Apple has been building up could boost Apple’s profits by as much as $10.5 billion. However, Apple has been lobbying to change U.S. law so it can erase its tax liabilities in a less conspicuous fashion.

In its second quarter ended March 31, Apple posted its first profit decline in ten years. Net income was $9.5 billion, or $10.09 a share, down 18 percent from $11.6 billion, or $12.30 a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue increased 11 percent, to $43.6 billion.

Apple said in April that it will distribute $100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015. The company is expanding its share buyback program to $60 billion, the largest buyback authorization in history, and is raising its quarterly dividend by 15 percent, to $3.05 a share.

In Monday’s regular trading session, Apple’s stock rose $9.67, or 2.23 percent, to close at $442.93.

President Barack Obama has proposed using the tax code to encourage companies to move jobs back to the U.S. and discourage them from shifting jobs abroad. Many in both parties say they want to overhaul the entire tax code, but there are vast differences in how they would do so.